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The widespread application of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in supply chains is said to cause enormous data volume problems that could render RFID event‐driven supply chains unmanageable. An unbiased and quantitative understanding of the characteristics and extent of these data volume problems is necessary to identify and remove adoption barriers. This paper aims to address the issues.

The paper presents a simulation study based on a real‐world scenario that reveals quantitative characteristics of the data volumes problem in an RFID‐enabled supply chain and discusses its implications.

The results suggest that data volumes will be much lower than currently assumed by practitioners. Thus, this work can be seen as a first basis for eliminating unjustified adoption concerns regarding data volumes complexity. However, it finds that the data volume problems bear still significant challenges for researchers and developers of RFID infrastructures with real‐time decision‐making applications.

The simulation study is based on a single product case study of a retail supply chain in Europe. Since a simulation is always a simplification of the real world, the results need to be interpreted carefully in different contexts. The nature and extent of the problem might vary across different products, industries and geographic regions.

Researchers, end‐users and solution providers might use our paper as a guideline how to approach and quantify the data volume problem in their particular case. Moreover, the result data can be used to benchmark and optimize RFID applications.

This paper is one of the first scholarly works that analyze RFID data volume problems in supply chains with a quantitative methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to broaden extant understanding of actor engagement behavior beyond its currently dominant dyadic (micro-level) focus, by examining it from multiple levels of aggregation within a service ecosystem framework.

This conceptual paper draws on service-dominant logic and structuration theory as theoretical lenses to inform engagement research.

By means of a stepwise exercise of “zooming out,” the paper introduces a multi-perspective (micro-, meso-, macro- and meta-level) view of actor engagement that develops understanding of multiple engagement contexts, and suggests that balancing multiple roles may result in actor disengagement behavior. The role of reference groups and role conflict associated with balancing multiple roles is critical to understanding why engaged actor proclivities may wax and wane between contexts.

The paper offers a set of five propositions that can be utilized by engagement scholars undertaking further research in this area.

Firms need to understand the values and norms embedded in diverse engagement contexts which can affect actor groups’ needs and motivations. Firms should develop appropriate organizational mechanisms to facilitate (rather than impede or obstruct) the desired behaviors of engaged actors.

The broader context within which engaged actors operate, and its effects on engagement, has been largely overlooked to date. By broadening the analytical perspective on engagement beyond the dyadic this paper reveals previously unaddressed aspects of this phenomenon, such as the role of disengagement behavior, and the effects of multiple engagement contexts on actors’ future behaviors.

Customer engagement is of critical interest to both academics and practitioners. Extant literature focusses primarily on customer engagement with a single focal object, usually brands; this study takes another view to consider customer engagement with multiple focal objects (service provider and context). In addition to testing the relationship of the individual dimensions of engagement with the service provider and engagement with the context, this research elaborates on their drivers, with a particular focus on distinct engagement platforms. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A survey captures customer engagement with a service provider and a context in a higher education setting, with 251 responses collected across first- and third-year marketing courses in an Australian, mid-sized university.

Engagement with the service provider can drive engagement with the context. In turn, engagement with the service provider can be stimulated through the use of engagement platforms that enable customer-to-service provider interactions. The results show limited effects of customer-to-customer engagement platforms on engagement with the context though. The results are consistent across gender and student grade levels; some differences arise between international and domestic students.

This unique study broadens understanding of customer engagement with various focal objects and also details the flow of effects, from engagement with a service provider to engagement with the context. This research builds on conceptual discussions of engagement platforms and empirically examines their ability to facilitate affective, cognitive and behavioural engagement.

Despite recognition that organizations operate in interrelated service systems, extant literature has focused strongly on dyadic engagement relationships (e.g. customer-to-brand). Taking into account the multiple engagement foci that exist within a service system, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interdependence among engagement with these multiple foci in a higher education setting. Specifically, the research investigates different configurations of engagement dimensions with the service provider and brand as they pertain to engagement with the study context.

A total of 251 students were surveyed in regards to their engagement with a service provider (lecturer), brand (university) and study context. Data analysis utilized Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to identify the unique combinations of causal condition consistent with high student engagement with the study context.

Five solutions were identified, each with a different constellation of engagement dimensions. Most solutions entailed engagement with both the service provider and the brand, and cognitive processing (service provider) emerged as a core condition for every solution. This suggests service providers should seek to engage with consumers, particularly from a cognitive perspective, understanding this will support engagement with the context of study.

This research provides evidence that students can engage with their study context through different configurations of engagement with the service provider and the brand. Thus, it demonstrates the need to examine constellations of engagement dimensions related to multiple focal objects to understand their interdependencies and potential influence on engagement at a higher level of aggregation in a complex service environment.

COVID-19 vaccinations face a backdrop of widespread mistrust in their safety and effectiveness, specifically via social media platforms which constitute major barriers for the public health sector to manage COVID-19 (and future) pandemics. This study provides a more nuanced understanding of the public's engagement behavior toward COVID-19 vaccinations.

Using Netnography, this study explores the public's interactions with vaccine communications by the WHO via Facebook. From WHO posts about the COVID-19 vaccination 23,726 public comments on Facebook were extracted and analyzed.

Building on crisis communication, health and engagement literature, this paper identifies and conceptualizes seven patterns of engagement behavior toward the COVID-19 vaccination and develops the first framework of relationships between these patterns and the extant vaccine attitudes: vaccine acceptance, hesitancy and refusal.

This paper helps policymakers identify and adapt interventions that increase vaccine confidence and tailor public health services communications accordingly.

This research offers the first typology of patterns of engagement behavior toward COVID-19 vaccinations and develops a framework of relationships between these patterns and the existing understanding in health literature. Finally, the study provides data-driven communication recommendations to public health service organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to show how customers engage in negatively valenced influencing behavior (NVIB) and what triggers customers to use different forms of NVIB in an online context.

A qualitative study is conducted using an unobtrusive netnography. Data collected comprise of 954 negatively valenced online reviews posted on TripAdvisor to hotels, restaurants, and “things to do” in 12 different destinations worldwide.

Drawing on the recent literature relating to customer engagement behavior (CEB), this paper identifies and conceptualizes the relationship between five cognitive (service failure, overpricing, deception) and emotional (disappointment and insecurity) triggers of six forms of direct (dissuading, warning, and endorsing competitors) and indirect (discrediting, expressing regret, and deriding) NVIB.

The unobtrusive netnography has inherent limitations that lend itself to inductive rich insights rather than generalization. The study only focuses on NVIB within a specific online context, namely, TripAdvisor.

This paper provides managers with knowledge of the specific triggers of NVIB. Additionally, the paper conceptualizes the various forms of NVIB, how customers use them, and what triggers them to use each form. Moreover, the paper offers relevant data-inferred recommendations to service managers on how to manage each form of NVIB.

This research is the first to identify the forms and triggers of NVIB, classify direct and indirect forms, and conceptualize the relationships between forms and triggers.

In recent years, customer engagement (CE) with brands, which has been shown to yield enhanced firm sales, competitive advantage and stock returns, has risen to occupy a prominent position in brand management research and practice. Correspondingly, scholars have explored CE’s conceptualization, operationalization and its nomological networks as informed by different theoretical perspectives. However, in spite of important advances, the knowledge structure of the overall corpus of CE research remains tenuous. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the intellectual structure of CE research.

Based on this gap, this study deploys bibliometric and network analysis to map CE’s literature-based landscape. Using bibliometric analysis, important CE-publishing journals, authors and influential CE articles (2005–2020) are uncovered. Using network analysis, prominent CE themes are also unearthed.

The results document key CE-publishing journals and authors and their respective contributions to the literature. Five CE themes are also identified, including CE measurement/methods, online CE, CE’s value co-creating capacity, CE conceptualization and customer/consumer brand engagement. Further, an agenda for future CE research is provided based on the presented network analysis results.

The reported findings generate important implications for brand managers. For example, the identified critical role of online (vs offline) CE offers a range of strategic opportunities, as outlined.

This paper offers a pioneering bibliometric and network analysis of the CE literature, thus mapping the field. From the identified CE themes, important avenues for further CE research are also identified.